


Resurrection

by Rosella1356



Series: Pride Writeblr Event 2020 [1]
Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Grief, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mourning, The title should give you a clue, dead main character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:29:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24895444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosella1356/pseuds/Rosella1356
Summary: Eliot realized too late that he loved Quentin through all of it, so instead of backing down when the love of his life died, he chose to find a different solution.
Relationships: Quentin Coldwater/Eliot Waugh
Series: Pride Writeblr Event 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1801411
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	Resurrection

**Author's Note:**

> The tumblr writing community is doing a week long writing event where each day has a prompt. I am doing both original work and fanfiction this time. The fanfics will be posted in this series, while my original work will be on Tumblr. Feel free to check out both. 
> 
> Today's color and prompt were red and life.

Eliot could barely breath when Margo told him what the cost of freeing him was. First, he had rejected Quentin out of morbid panic over the idea that Quentin might one day leave him for a woman. Complete bullshit on his part. He knew better than that. Just because someone was bisexual didn’t mean they were going to leave you for the other gender. Unfortunately, his brain doesn’t always get the message when it comes to trusting people. He has his own set of issues. 

Secondly, he managed to get them separated for most of the entire time after that so he hadn’t had any time to pull Quentin to the side and beg him for forgiveness. He thought surely after their quest to return magic, he could pull Quentin to him and say that they would be okay. That they’d try to make it work. Because of those fucking peaches and plums. 

But then, he just had to get possessed by a monster, a monster who also happened to be in love with Quentin, although in a very different way. Why was this his life? This wasn’t fair, this wasn’t at all fair, but that’s the way of the world. So, he found himself running around inside his own mind, trying to break free. And when he does for just a couple minutes, he manages to tell Quentin about the peaches and the plums, and he believes him. Then, everything went downhill from there. So far downhill that Eliot could no longer see the opening. Maybe because that path was closed to him forever. Or maybe because the gods wanted to fucking laugh at him. He doesn’t know. 

As if all of that wasn’t enough to cause him to doubt every single decision that he’d ever made because it seemed to hurt the people that he loved, after all of that. Quentin just had to die. He had to make the sacrificial play, so that something worse couldn’t happen again. And, Quentin was dead. Eliot wouldn’t be able to hold him in his arms one more time. He wouldn’t be able to say sorry, to ask for that second chance. The chance that he knew that Quentin would give him, but that he wouldn’t deserve. How he would spend the rest of his life looking up at Quentin for being willing to give him another shot at the happiness that being with Quentin made him feel. 

Eliot drug himself to the funeral. He stood with the others and sang his heart out. He sang with the tears that were choking him, and Margo held him up. He couldn’t just let this go. He wouldn’t just let this go. This isn’t how their story is going to end. He won’t let this be the end.

He could feel Margo’s tension once she realized that he’d brought up his posture. She knew him well enough that it means that he has some plan, and Margo knew that right then his plans were going to focus on Quentin. She knew this would send him into a spiral, and she was right. 

He left the funeral and healed. He couldn’t very well raise the dead while still operating on the old system. He’s not strong enough with his regular amount of power to do it easily. He’d start with Fillory, because he is their king. He would find Gods that still had holds on the powers of death. He’d do whatever they asked. Because his ending with Quentin would not be another tragedy to make the poets weep. He didn’t have time for the way that poets had to weep in order to be heard. He had a tragedy to be made into a romantic tale. 

The first few months he spent recovering his energy and ensuring that the people in Fillory still knew his name. Well, knew his name and worshipped the ground that he stood on because he made sure that the hungry were fed, the poor had rights, and had given the animals the right to vote. He’s still a bit confused on how that part had happened. Something Margo said about a conversation about polyamory with a bear, but still that was something that many looked upon favorably. 

Margo stared at him every single time she saw him. But, until he had full magic back, she had remained the best friend with no doubts to speak of. It was after that time had passed that she brought her eyes up to his and spoke her thoughts. “You have to learn to move on, Eliot. This isn’t healthy, and Quentin is not coming back,” she said. 

Eliot offered her a smile. All of her words were truthful. Unfortunately for her, he wasn’t planning on listening to what the world deemed possible and impossible. He planned on making the universe acknowledge him as the only real choice to make in this situation. That was the same smile that would stay on his face every single time someone asked him whether he knew what he was going, because the simple answer was no. But that wouldn’t stop him. “He will come back, because I will drag him back.”

Margo sighed, but she didn’t try to argue with him. She had known him long enough to know that all that would accomplish is forcing him to pretend to being alright. Then, she’d have no clue when he found himself at the edge of a cliff content to throw himself off it. She’d have no chance to save him from the pitfalls that he’s falling into. A part of her hated Quentin then for making her best friend break this far, but then she’d remember that Quentin wasn’t the one who did this. The world did this using Quentin. 

Eliot spoke to the animals. He asked them whether anyone knew a way. Surprisingly to him, the Greek gods came up often. They offered many lovers a chance in the past. They had dared to stand in front of Hades and beg for the return of one they love. Eliot had never heard these myths except in passing, so he decides to go home to Earth and learn. 

Margo was more than happy to take the throne for that time. She hoped that being among the other people who had lost Quentin might actually help him realize that this was a fool’s mission. She had told him once that the difference between a live hero and dumb fool was one stupid decision, but he appeared to no longer care whether he ended up in the latter category. She didn’t know how to fix that anymore. 

Eliot spent most of his time in the libraries as he scoured the planet for every interpretation of the plays that dealt with the living dead. He made sure that he knew exactly which words appeared to convince Hades to listen. Because he needed this god to be willing to grant him the same exceptions as the rest, and he’d be smarter than to fall for whatever test that Persephone chose to place on him. If she told him to stay silent, he’d sew his lips shut. If he was told not to look behind him. He’d fucking cast a spell that would force his eyes forward. If he was asked to give up magic, easy. His throne, done. The only thing he might hesitate to give away would be his memory of Quentin because that would be beyond cruel. Still, he’s pretty sure that he’d make the deal and let Quentin break his way through the walls again. 

Kady stayed away from him after the first visit. She’d been through the same thing, and she didn’t give up until she did end up in a mental hospital. She had no right to lecture him, so she didn’t even try. She would do the same thing, if she thought of it at the time. Now, she’s made her peace with the fact that her Penny is lost to time. She won’t get another chance, and she’s okay with that. 

Penny never came in the first place. Eliot reasons to himself that the new Penny had only known him for maybe a week before he was overtaken by a giant monster. So, that doesn’t surprise him.

Julia surprised Eliot though. She brought him food, coffee and more leads. Each day she handed him an easier path to his mission. She doesn’t ask him whether he’s thought it through or whether he knows what he’s getting himself into. They both know that he does, and that the risks won’t stop him. Never would have. 

Eliot caught her one day staring at the photograph of him that he kept with him as a constant reminder. That’s when he realized that Julia was helping him because the love that she had for Quentin wasn’t the type that Hades granted exceptions for. So, instead she’d make it easier for him to make the deal, because she needed her best friend back almost as much as he needed his lover back. 

Alice came by the first day, and she felt anger. Eliot could tell just from looking at her, but he pointed to the door, and she left. He didn’t think much of it. Afterall, not everyone would be okay. That was alright with him. He understood the hesitation. He really did, because this could backfire and hurt him even more. Or it could lead to him dying, and Quentin hating him. The thing was is he could live with those outcomes better than he could live like this. 

“I did this once you know,” Alice mentioned as she walked back into the library, leaning against a bookshelf, so that there is some distance between them in case Eliot decides to be a little upset with her words during this conversation. 

“Not really. You were trying to bring back a Nimbus, and I’m trying to bring back the dead. One could argue that mine might be conceptually harder, but also more realistic within my power structure. Also, I’m not using my magic to raise him,” Eliot replied. His eyes still trained on the Greek texts in front of him, as he tries to piece together the letters so that he can make out the original works as best as he can. 

“Semantics.”

“Important ones.”

“This destroyed my relationship with Quentin. This is what destroyed us. Are you sure that you want to go down the same road? What happens when you succeed, and he still hates you?”

Eliot snapped his eyes up to her to give her a glare. “Then, he’s alive, and I have the rest of our lives to make him see that I was willing to do this for him, and that I’m trying to make up for the hurt I caused.”

“That’s not what will happen,” she said. “No, he’ll see this as you not willing to accept the fact that he was willing to die for you. He will see this as a powerplay, and he won’t forgive you. Please, Eliot, let this go. I can get you therapy. I will find you a nice man to make your husband. You’ll find that there are more people on this world than the one that you lost. I promise.”

Eliot gave her the same smile that he gave Margo. He didn’t actually stop, but he made her look him in the eyes. And, she fell silent. She knew as well as Margo did in that moment, that he didn’t care. He didn’t care whether this doomed him further or not, because he would gladly be damned if it meant that Quentin Coldwater was still there. 

A couple of days later, and he makes the first offering to Hades. He leaves similar offers with his pleas every day for the next three months. Eliot didn’t have a timeframe for this because none of the plays ever really talked about the process to get to the underworld, they talked about what happened once they were there. 

Hades came for him on the 91st day. He took him down into the throne room, and he stared down at Eliot with distaste, but a distant curiosity. “No mortal has begged for a loved one this dedicatedly since the ancient Greeks.”

“Well, I’m no ancient Greek, but I am a stubborn man. I am a stubborn man who is in love with Quentin Coldwater and wasn’t able to tell him. I am standing before you begging for another chance to do this right.”

“At first, I thought you were idiotic. You already got one lifetime with the man, why on Earth would you try to beg for a second, but then I realized that you didn’t count the past as real. You still don’t count that time, because you chose to discount it. You’re here to make up wrongs.”

“You could say that,” Eliot reasoned. 

“You can have Quentin. I’ll let you carry him back into the mortal realm, no tricks and no games. Because the biggest issue you’re going to have isn’t getting him out, but getting him to stay.”

Eliot managed a real grin this time as he nodded. “That will be difficult, but I plan on laying my heart bare for him to pick through. If that isn’t enough, then I might be able to move on the second time.”

“You should also know,” Hades stated, “that the past Penny really wants to behead you for daring to take Quentin out of the underworld after all of the effort he expended trying to make Quentin comfortable down here.”

Eliot nodded once more. “I’ll accept his cusses when I actually join the dead.”

Hades nodded over to a door on the side and waved a hand to make Quentin’s body appear. “He’ll be unconscious for the journey to avoid any shock to his system. He should wake up in a couple hours or maybe a full day, but if he chooses to rejoin my realm, I will hold you responsible.”

Eliot walked forward and picked up Quentin’s body. The weight should have been a new feeling, but instead it almost feels as if he’s finally come home from somewhere else. He moved his head to Hades once more. “Thank you, Hades. May death find those who you wish well and may your enemies never find peace even in death.”

Hades paused and held up a hand. “Could I ask you for a favor as I have done you one?”

“Yes.”

“My son hurt one of your friends, and I understood his punishment, but then she gave up his magic, and I would like his magic back in this world. Could you try to convince her to pick it back up, to choose the other path?”

Eliot smiled then. “I can’t convince her of anything, but I will ask. And one day, when Quentin has chosen to talk to me and listen to me, then I’ll convince him to work on it to and that has a much higher chance of getting her to change.”

With those words spoken, he walked through that portal with intent to save the one person that he loved with all that he is. He was surprised when suddenly, he was back in Fillory. Only long enough until he realized that Quentin was still in his arms. 

He marched them both to his quarters and laid Quentin down on his bed. He collapsed to his knees in breathless amusement, because he had done it. He managed to cheat death to make the world just a little bit more fair to him. He had the person he loved back. As long as they lived, he could try to earn whatever Quentin wanted to potentially give him. 

He called for a servant and istructed them to get Margo. 

“You’re back. Please tell me that you’re ready to move on from Coldwater,” she snapped as she entered up until her eyes landed on Quentin still laying in that bed. 

Eliot shrugged as he sheepishly ducked his head. “I can’t really claim that I’m over him, because I didn’t really learn to let go back on Earth. I may have just found a way to drag him back to the land of the living.”

“He’s going to hate you,” Margo screamed. Her anger and her happiness were at war with each other. Because on one hand, that was her friend now laying on the bed. On the other hand, he was happy in the afterlife, she knew it.

“I had to try.”

“No, no you chose to try. You could have leaned on me and cried for a year. You could have learned how to pick yourself back up each and every morning. Instead, you’ve done this. Instead, you’ve brought back the dead.”

Quentin stirred where he laid in that comfy bed. He really couldn’t stand yelling. “Margo, I don’t care when or why you died. Just stop yelling until I can convince my eyes to open.”

Eliot turned and brushed the hair out of Quentin’s eyes. “Sorry, plums, you are no longer in the land of the dead.”

“Peaches. Peaches and plums. You came for me,” he rambled. 

“Hmm, yes, I suppose I did.”

Quentin rolled over to reach for Eliot with his eyes still closed. “I told Penny that you would. He seemed to think that you would move on the same way that Kady did for him after a couple of times.”

Margo stared. “You aren’t upset.”

Quentin smiled. “I loved him, and I knew somewhere he loved me enough to come get me even if it wasn’t for a relationship. Now, Eliot, please kiss me.”

Eliot leaned over and brought their lips together. The world was suddenly alright again. The love of his life was among the living, and he had a million reasons to hold him closer each day. That would be enough. Especially as the kiss, portrayed all of the love that he had kept hidden since the first quest.


End file.
